The White Countess: Movie Review, DVD Review (2005)

9/26/2007 Posted by Admin

The blond leading the blind

(Originally published 2005)

Directed by James Ivory, written by Kazuro Ishiguro, 135 minutes, rated PG-13.

The latest Merchant-Ivory film, "The White Countess," is also the last Merchant-Ivory film. In the wake of producer Ismail Merchant's May 2005 death, the film, which director Ivory based on Kazuo Ishiguro's script, doesn't allow the duo to go out on the high note they deserved.

Instead, it completes what has been a gradual slide into mediocrity ever since their best effort, "The Remains of the Day," was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1993 but failed to win a single one.

With the exception of "Le Divorce," a so-so movie that at least found a measure of life and looseness along the streets of present-day Paris (not exactly difficult to do), the films that followed "Day"--"Jefferson in Paris," "Surviving Picasso," "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries," "The Golden Bowl" and "The Mystic Masseur"--were so arch and static, they never came together.

All of those later films had their admirable moments, but the movies still lacked what made "Remains of the Day," "Howard's End," "A Room with a View," "The Bostonians" and "Maurice" so vital--a deep bond with the characters, not to mention a pace that gathered emotional intensity.

Over the past decade, what Merchant-Ivory have lost is their connection to people. Their interest in society, manners and class differences became so great that it overcame them and their work. They no longer were making movies about people. Instead, they were making movies about a lost and artificial ideal.

"The White Countess" is no exception. It's a well-acted, beautifully shot movie that can be maddening in its civility. You watch it hoping for a spark, but since the movie is designed to prevent its leads from connecting emotionally until the last possible moment, the film leaves you feeling ambivalent. Long stretches sag beneath a sluggish pace that's sandbagged by a bloated running time.

Set in 1936, the film stars Natasha Richardson as Sofia Belinksy, a widowed Russian countess exiled to Shanghai who becomes a taxi dancer to pay the rent for herself and her slippery relatives (Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, Madeleine Potter, John Wood). While none of them work and all rely on her income to live, they nevertheless resent Sofia for her chosen line of work. They call her cheap and say she has brought shame upon the family--especially upon her daughter, Katya (Madeleine Day)--and yet there they are, more than happy to take her money.

Circumstances lead Sofia to Todd Jackson (Ralph Fiennes), a blind American diplomat with a troubled past who decides that what Shanghai needs is a high-brow nightclub in which wealthy people of all nationalities can come to create a little glamour and political tension. Sensing Sofia could be the glue for such a club, he hires her to be its hostess, going so far as to name the club after her--the White Countess.

Before war begins, the club is a success, but who cares when the people you most want to see come together have made a pact never to share their personal lives? This major misstep prevents Sofia and Jackson from growing close. Until the very end, when bombs, turmoil and familial deception start to explode around them, their relationship is kept so firmly at arm's length, it's tough to feel much of anything for them when their self-imposed dam finally breaks.

Watching this movie can be exasperating. You realize that with only a few tweaks, it could have been infinitely better.

Grade: C

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